On Tue, 30 Aug 2011, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
On 30/08/2011 1:50 PM, Jeffrey Ryan wrote:
R-devel,
I am interested in creating a package that requires non-GPL'd
(commercial) C code to work. In essence it is a single .c file
with no use of R headers (all .C callable functions). For
example's sake:
1 #include<stdio.h>
2
3 void test (int *a) {
4 *a = 101;
5 }
The package isn't destined for CRAN, and I realize that this isn't
R-legal, but looking for some expert advice from anyone else who
may have encountered this previously.
The question is whether or not one can distribute code that has
multiple licenses (.c or individual .R files), including some that
are not GPL-compatible, as a tar.gz (or binary) file. i.e., does
the packaging process [R CMD ***] cause everything to become GPL,
as we are using R itself to build the package?
I can only say that the answer to the last question is "no": the author gets
to choose the license for what s/he wrote. The fact that you used R to
package it is irrelevant. (Some extremists will disagree, and say that
because your package is intended to "link" to R, it must be licensed
compatibly with the GPL if you distribute it. I don't think that's true.)
If no distribution is involved, the conditions under which the tarball
can be distributed is not relevant.
As e.g. GNU tar is itself under GPL, using R to do the packaging is no
different in principle to using GNU tar to do so and I've never heard
anyone argue that using GNU tar affects the licence of the tarball.
I don't think that is the same issue as distributing non-GPLed code
for use with R. In the latter case the issue is what 'link to'
actually entails, and one source of advice is the GPL FAQs. E.g.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
If you are intending to distribute this file you are putting together, you'll
probably want to consult someone who knows the legalities as to whether you
can legally link to the commercial library...
Duncan Murdoch
I can of course provide the C libs in this case as a separate install, but
that adds complexity to the overall build and install process.
Thanks,
Jeff
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